Hmm, my phase I suggestions would only include tires and rechargeable (NiMH) batteries. Carbon H plates would be a distant third (possibly phase II), as depending on your preferences they may be more for reliability than performance (look at how well chucky does with stock plastic plates). They are typically one of my first upgrades, though. I would put bearings and (non-stock) damper systems in phase two, as I don't consider either particularly necessary to someone starting off.

I would also suggest that a decent digital controller might be useful before any of the stage III items, but then I don't care much for alloy, and that's pretty debatable.

Which Damper system should I use, the one that goes on top or the one that goes down either side? I've seen pics of cars that have both, is that over kill? Also what H plate should I use? Thanks

I would do a search or start a new thread asking about dampers. If you do start a new thread be sure to post which type of chassis it's on because the dampers are chassis specific. As SoyVerde mentioned though, a damper may be a later upgrade, definitely after tires and batteries.

your logic is spot on as far as upgrades...im new to mini z s but not RC cars/trucks. What is confusing is the wide range of hop ups and mfgs of them.(partial to kyosho) Now when i buy tires im getting 4 rears or 4 fronts per pack. The cool thing for me is that the 2 cars come with different tires(slicks &treads) and im getting an education from them. So now i need to make sure i get the right combo for the surface I want to run on. What tires work best on RCP track? My plans for now are bearings, tires, and maybe ball diffs. What spare parts do you reccomend we keep in our pit box??? Thanks again for all suggestions.

If anything I would bump the damper system to a phase II. I know some swear up and down on these, I just think you can get by without it for a bare bones car. Metal wheel nuts would fit there nice though, I like to upgrade those with the bearings. They also save headaches later when you are cleaning the car. When you have one car it would work to trick it out with everything, just when you have a few more cars those hopups add up quick. I figure I am doing good to have ball diffs on all my racer chassis.

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